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“No Biking in the House Without a Helmet”

By Lisa Belkin August 4, 2011 2:29 pmAugust 4, 2011 2:29 pm

It’s time for a laugh-out-loud selection for the Motherlode Book Club. Something you can take to the beach.

An ideal choice is “No Biking in the House Without a Helmet,” which is Melissa Fay Greene’s story of her family: her husband, Don Samuel; her children by birth (Molly, now 29; Seth, 26; Lee, 23; and Lily, 19); and her five children by adoption, four from Ethiopia and one from Bulgaria (Fisseha, 17; Daniel, 17; Jesse 16; Yosef, 14; and Helen, 15.)

The book will give us a chance to discuss many things: the hows and whys of international adoption, coping with sibling rivalry, being an older parent, raising a lot of children, raising children of another race and culture, raising children to be citizens of the world. We will get to all of that later this month, after you have had a chance to begin the book.

“No Biking” is also a chance to revel in the joy that one wonderful writer takes in this messy, exhausting, life-changing process — and we will get to that part right away. Not everything goes smoothly in this story, and Ms. Greene is not Pollyanna. But she is as upbeat as any parent you are ever going to meet, with a wicked sense of humor that I plan to try and channel the next time things get chaotic in my own, relatively tiny family.

So let’s start with the fun part. The title of the book, Ms. Greene explains, is what she said to one of her sons the day he invented the sport of riding a bike down the stairs into the basement.

We’ve collected those kinds of “Did I actually say that?” moments before on Motherlode, but it is clearly time for an update.

About

We're all living the family dynamic, as parents, as children, as siblings, uncles and aunts. At Motherlode, lead writer and editor KJ Dell’Antonia invites contributors and commenters to explore how our families affect our lives, and how the news affects our families—and all families. Join us to talk about education, child care, mealtime, sports, technology, the work-family balance and much more